May 05, 2008

Talking about Voice SMS, Video SMS and MMS in a webinar tomorrow

Mobile Text messaging has created new opportunities for additional revenue resources for global mobile operators. Industry analysts predicts mobile messaging to reach $65B in annual revenue by 2010. As a result of this messaging explosion, operators continue to look for ways to differentiate themselves in messaging services and to increase the revenue realized from text messaging. Adding voice and video messages to the standard text message service is just one of the services operators are using to enhance the texting experience within their subscriber base. This webinar will examine video and voice short messaging services(SMS), discuss the technical considerations of implementing these types of services and review various operator successes with media messaging services.

Multi-Media messaging (MMS) has been very successful in some markets, e.g. the UK, while in others, like the US, it's used only for sending photos. In other markets, it's hardly used at all. Part of the problem is handset interoperability, especially when it comes to exchanging video clips. In some cases, there are handset-specific user interface issues and in some markets the problem is enabling MMS operation, e.g. roughly half of the MMS-capable handsets in the Philippines haven't been "activated" (as the operator needs an SMS from the customer indicating their handset type). Finally, there are markets where MMS inter-connection between operators.doesn't work, either technically or commercially.

But where there's a failure, other solutions emerge. That's what I'll be talking about tomorrow.

I've written in the past about Voice SMS and about Video SMS, two services that fill the gap by being very simple to use and by working with every handset and every operator.

Comments

There are two issues that keep MMS from attaining widespread acceptance in the Philippines: it's expensive, and local telcoms haven't been doing a good job of walking people through the activation process.

Yes, expensive is problem in many markets! The ultimate solution for any activation process is to get rid of it, i.e. figure out to have everyone enabled from the get go. Depending on the operator's existing infrastructure and internal politics that may not be trivial, but it should be the objective.